Our Ethiopian Blessings: After Months of Waiting......

Friday, October 22, 2010

After Months of Waiting......

WE ARE FINALLY GOING TO MEET OUR KIDS!!!!!! Tomorrow is the day we begin our long awaited journey to Ethiopia! I have such a mixture of emotions! I'm not even nervous about the flight..just anxious to get there! I am really nervous about meeting them..will they like us? will they cry?? will they be scared?? I have stared at their picture daily since July 15th and prayed and dreamed of them for months before that! It feels surreal! I cant wait to hold them! We leave tomorrow at 2:30pm and arrive in Ethiopia the following day at 7pm. Ethiopia is 7hrs ahead of our local time so I am trying to figure out when we will Skype our kids at home!! As excited as I am to go it is hard for me to leave the other 3! I will try to update as often as possible while we are there...no Blackberry for a whole week!!! I will also post updates on facebook.

The way things are working.. this is all I know schedule wise:

Sunday: arrive at 7pm...sleep:)
Monday: MEETCHA DAY!!!!!! please when you go to bed Sunday night pray for us as we meet our children for the first time!
2 other families arrive Monday night
Tuesday: Meetcha day for the other families and we get to see our kiddos again:)
Wed-Thurs not sure but we are probably going to Korah and the Fistula Hospital plus a few other orphanages.
Friday: Court appointment where we pray the judge will legally declare us their parents. This will be a hard, emotional day. We will meet our children's biological father today. Pray we can express to him how thankful we are for his sacrifice. He is suffering such a huge loss and we are gaining 2 blessings. It will be HARD! We will have to say GOODBYE to our children for a while and he will also have to say goodbye my heart is already breaking for them. We will post pictures of the kids(as long as we pass) before we head to the airport.
Saturday: Arrive home

Please pray for us this week and for all of our children! This Sunday night and next Friday night please remember to pray for us. While you sleep we will be meeting our children...we will be going to court! Oh Boy!!!!!!! I'm EXCITED!!!!!!!

5 comments:

KellyOctober 22, 2010 at 9:31 PM
Friend-
I can hardly believe it's finally here!! On one hand, it feels like we've been waiting forever. On the other hand it feels like, "Oh gosh. This is really happening now?!"

Praying God's richest blessings on your family. Eyes tearing up as I write this I am so, so, so very thankful you will be holding your children soon....
love you friend...
kelly
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UnknownOctober 23, 2010 at 9:46 AM
Oh my word you are going to have the time of your life! I have been back almost 3 weeks now and am DYING to go back for Embassy. The moment those kiddos walk into the room...words cannot describe it! Praying for safe travels and sweet memories!
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Crazy Roots in AfricaOctober 23, 2010 at 10:53 AM
Blessings, and well wishes! I can't wait to see you holding them! You're about to have one of the most memorable weeks of your life and I can't wait for you!!! Whooo hooo.
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liz kulpOctober 23, 2010 at 11:18 AM
God speed! I am in tears for you right now!
Liz Kulp (mom to simon and danielle)
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DebbOctober 28, 2010 at 7:14 PM
So excited for you! Thanks for all your updates while you are over there! PRAYING that court goes wonderfully well Friday! *hugs*
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Why Ethiopia?

We are sure many are not only questioning why more children but why Ethiopia. This is a journey that we have not come upon lightly but through much thought and prayer. Adoption had been on our hearts for years before we (or the Lord) decided the time was right. After attending a AWAA adoption seminar we felt led to go to Ethiopia. There are many other countries but we felt strongly this is where our children are! Yes children..we are praying for siblings!

Here are some other reasons Why Ethiopia:

1 in 10 children die before thier 1st birthday

1 in 6 children die before their 5th birthday

60% of children are stunted by malnutrition

The doctor to child ratio is 1 to 24,000

Half of the children will never attend school

Life expectancy is 45 yrs of age

There are roughly 4.8 million orphans

12/18/10 $7300 flights,visas in-country and xtras
10/22/10 $5600 Trip #1 2 flights, in country and xtras
9/17/20 $560 Homestudy Update
7/16/10 Mailed Acceptence letter!!!!!
7/16/10 $9,385.00 final agency fees
7/15/10 REFERRAL!!
4/5/10 $82.00 typhoid vaccination
2/4/10 $7,700 Dossier submission
11/14/09 $830.00 USCIS fee
10/10/09 $7.99 Anths extra passport photos
8/27/09 $7.99 my extra passport photos
8/26/09 $93.00 amazon for required reading books
8/25/09 $94.00 2nd homestudy visit fee
8/25/09 $20.00 2 doc.to be state certified
8/25/09 $6.00 County certification fee
7/27/09 2nd passport received
7/22/09 2 birth cert. $20.00
7/17/09 Homestudy,post placement fee $3744.00
6/30/09 Photo fee $15.00
6/30/09 Passport processing fee $25.00
6/30/09 Passport fee (anthony)$75.00
6/29/09 Passport received
6/22/09 Hague Training $175.00
6/18/09 Overnight envelope
6/18/09 1st payment $1500.00
6/10/09 Money order fee $1.00
6/10/09 Passport processing fee $25.00
6/10/09 Photo fee $15.00
6/10/09 Passport fee(mine) $75.00
5/29/09 2nd day mail envelope
5/29/09 Application fee $250.00

The Many Steps To Our Adoption

Our Adoption Process will take us any where from 12-18mths from start to finish, These are all the steps we have to follow to meet our children:

*Apply with America World Adoption Agency *Receive approval of application

*Send in signed paperwork, including agency agreement and releases (6/17/09)

*Complete home study (includes a series of home visits and interviews with a social worker to discuss our backgrounds, marriage, financial situation, reason for adopting, etc.)

*File with U.S. CIS (Citizen Immigration Services) for our child’s visa to enter the United States.

*Get fingerprinted by the FBI

*Assemble our dossier (an extensive set of documents required by the Ethiopian government for our adoption). The following items must be included in our dossier:

*America World sends our dossier to Ethiopia for translation into Amharic

*Dossier presented to the Ministry of Women and Childrens affairs(MOWA)in Ethiopia for approvel includes:

Application letter

Certified copies of our birth certificates

Certified copies or our marriage certificate

Medical letters from our doctors following physical examinations

Proof of medical and life insurance

Personal financial information (tax documents, etc.)

Employment verification letters

Three letters of reference

Police reports

Power of attorney

US passports

Photos of our family and our home

171-H approval (after our application is approved by USCIS)

Have all dossier documents notarized, certified, and authenticated

*Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWA) in Ethiopia for approval

**REFERRAL DAY – MOWA sends a child’s picture and medical report to us

We have the opportunity to accept or reject (which we don’t anticipate doing!) our referral

After accepting our referral, the court process takes place in Ethiopia to grant us official guardianship of our child

Approximately 8-10 weeks after accepting our referral, we will travel to Ethiopia to attend court for our children.

We will then travel home without our childrfen and wait approx. another 4-8 weeks to travel again.

On this trip we will:

Obtain a visa for our children and complete a few other paperwork items

Fly home with our children!